Re: A new Indo-European subfamily in China

Kristian Jensen wrote:

>Nik Taylor wrote:
>
>>E-Ching Ng tleiei :
>-----<snip>-----
>>> And out of curiosity, do most of the minority languages in
>>> China have tone?
>>
>>As far as I know.  It's an areal feature covering much of East Asia.
>
>Yeah... even the Chamic (Austronesian) languages in Hainan Island are
>tonal and monosyllabic. Austronesian languages are otherwise known for
>being polysyllabic and non-tonal. E-Ching Ng might want to check the
>Chamic languages out for his project. As far as I recall, the Chamic
>languages become monosyllabic (with complex onset clusters) and developed
>tones from there. Roger Mills certainly knows more on this. I believe he
>is our resident Austronesian expert.>

You are too kind.
There are AN languages in Hainan, but I'm not sure they can be classified as
_Chamic_ -- that usually applies to the better known langs. of inland
southern Vietnam.  Years ago, in fact, one of my students unearthed a
journal article from North Vietnam (in Vietnamese, unfortunately) describing
a language of interior NVN that was clearly AN.   Well, when the Cham state
collapsed around 1000-1200 CE, undoubtedly relic groups took off in all
directions.

Re tonal languages:  About all I know for sure is the voiced initial >
voiceless plus low tone rule.  Presumably a bi- or polysyllabic
proto-language could also develop tones based on original stress patterns.
Maybe voiced medial consonants could play a role too.  (I'm trying to
develop such a proto-lang / modern tonal language too, slowly and with great
confusion.)

For the absolute last word on "tonogenesis", check your library /journals
for anything by James Matisoff.  There are bibliographic refs. on-line too;
go to google.com and punch in "tonogenesis".